Hallettsville cruises into regional final

Hallettsville's Dylan Kerr celebrates after tagging out Bishop's Sam Reyes at home to end Game 2.
Joe Lamberti
for The Victoria Advocate

CORPUS CHRISTI - Hallettsville rode a bus to Robstown before traveling to Kingsville and finally Corpus Christi, and waited almost eight hours before getting a chance to play baseball.

But when the Brahmas finally escaped the rain, they had no problem finishing off Bishop.

"It's frustrating," senior Will Wheeler admitted. "You're not in your hometown and you're driving around. At the same time, you've got to know there's work to be done and you can't let them back in the game and you've got to stay focused."

Hallettsville took out its frustrations on the Badgers with a 10-3 win in Game 2 of their best-of-three Class 2A regional semifinal series that finally began Saturday evening at Cabaniss Field.

The Brahmas won 5-3 in Game 1 on Friday night in Weimar, and swept the series while improving to 31-3.

Hallettsville advanced to the regional final for the second straight season. The Brahmas will play either Danbury or Marion, who were rained out Saturday and will play Monday in Weimar.

The Brahmas couldn't play at Fairgrounds Park in Robstown, the Kingsville High field or at Nolan Ryan Field in Kingsville, and had to kill a lot of time, but it didn't faze them.

"They do a pretty good job of policing themselves," said Hallettsville coach Shorty Cook. "We've got some really good senior leadership that makes my job much easier. We talked about it and knew we were going to have to handle some adversity and our seniors took over and did it."

The Brahmas got right down to business at the ballpark, scoring three runs in the bottom of the first inning to take a lead they never relinquished.

Wallace got Hallettsville on the scoreboard with a two-run triple, and Nate Kowalik followed with a RBI single.

"Every time I step in the box I've got to tell myself I'm better than the pitcher," Wallace said. "I've got to do anything I can to put the ball in play."

Wallace was 3 for 4, scored three runs and had two RBIs.

"Baseball is funny like that," Cook said. "That ball is probably looking like a big old balloon to him and let's hope it continues. He works hard at what he does at the plate. In BP he's locked in every pitch. He doesn't take a day off and he doesn't take a pitch off in BP."

Wallace had plenty of assistance from his teammates, who had 14 hits off of three Bishop (24-8) pitchers.

Nate Kowalik and Tait Schindler each had three hits, and the Brahmas scored multiple runs in four innings.

"I came out at the beginning of the year stroking it and lost it," Schindler said. "My teammates picked me up and I'm trying to get back on it."

The run support was more than enough for starting pitcher Reagan McAda. The senior worked around three leadoff walks to pitch a complete game. He struck out nine and yielded only one earned run.

"He fell behind in the count," Cook said. "He's just a battler. He's going to find a way to get it done, and he seems to always do it. It was a gutsy performance for him."